I'm going to be honest. I feel bad providing context for this clip. Watching Marc-Andre Fleury gently give his shaft a nice stroking is at it's peak humor-wise when you have absolutely no idea why he's doing it. Unfortunately - if you're a lowly Capitals fan - his performance was too key to the Penguins Game 7 victory for me to just sit here and try to make a bunch of not-so-subtle masturbation references. Therefore, I regretfully inform you that MAF is extremely superstitious, and the self love that he showed his stick was out of appreciation for it's opportune placement...

Basically, it was an example of the same passion that he has for his goal posts when they handle their business from behind...

Anyway, enough about Marc-Andre Fleury offering a giving hand as he whispers sweet nothings to inanimate objects, because what he finished off last night easily transcended a GIF that can safely be used during passive aggressive sexting with someone whose boundaries you are testing.

What he did last night was put an exclamation point on the unexpected relief appearance that has helped to carry the defending champions through the first two rounds of the playoffs. What he did last night was make a team that's been without their #1 defenseman, #1 goaltender, and - at times - their #1 center's cerebral cortex the prohibitive favorite to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals. What he did last night was punctuate a two week performance that put the Vezina Candidate at the other end of the ice to shame.

Surely there's a lot of narratives to be discussed, but the predominant story of what was a fairly ridiculous series is that Marc-Andre Fleury outplayed Braden Holtby and it wasn't even particularly close. The "backup" that lost his job to a rookie and had many patiently waiting for him to come back to Earth where they largely view him as a postseason choke artist just beat off (hehe) his haters with an effort that could ultimately result in the implosion of the team that undeniable got the better of his own. Obviously everyone's first order of business is to point and laugh at Washington while talking about Alexander Ovechkin as if he's the antichrist that's preventing them from reaching the promised land. However, let us not forget that having a fucking field day at the expense of the back-to-back Presidents' Trophy winners wouldn't be possible without the oft-forgotten man that made the fact that they were the better team a moot point.